Criminal Leaks

When WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified documents involving the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in October, the Obama administration condemned Julian Assange’s rogue organization for putting the lives of the military personnel and important informants at risk. While the alleged source of the leak, Pfc. Bradley Manning, was taken into custody, there was no push for punitive action against WikiLeaks itself. Now Assange has stepped over the line: he’s embarrassed the diplomatic corps and the politicians behind it. Sunday’s release of over 250,000 State Department documents sent the administration and politicians on both sides of the aisle into a frenzy.

“This disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community — the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity,” Secretary of State Clinton said. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the release “a crime,” and Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department had launched “an active, ongoing, criminal investigation” into WikiLeaks activities.

Assange’s willingness to disclose state secrets is reprehensible in any form. But, should a peek into the misty backrooms of international diplomacy cause more outrage than putting the lives of Americans serving in uniform, and the brave Iraqis and Afghans who help them, at risk? Such is the world we live in and perhaps we should be grateful, if the administration is finally serious about going after WikiLeaks in some meaningful way. Representative Peter King suggested that WikiLeaks should be designated a terror organization and, under the old rules, it would be hard to argue against King’s point. The Bush Doctrine said that anyone who knowingly harbors or aids terrorists would be treated as an enemy. “You’re either with us or against us,” Bush said, and viewed through that simple lens, there’s no doubt which side WikiLeaks comes out on. Unfortunately, the Obama administration, parroting the progressive point of view, cannot abide such a clear line of demarcation. The president has effectively added a third category: you’re with us, you’re against us, or you’re a misguided soul engaged in criminal mischief that might seem a little like terrorism but really shouldn’t be handled that way.

Yet, labeling this latest document dump a crime is at least a step in the right direction for this administration, although hoping to drag Assange and his cronies into court falls far short of the kind of aggressive action needed to end the national security threat that WikiLeaks represents. It is perhaps more interesting to consider what about this particular round of disclosures caused the administration to up the ante. Could it be that many of the documents reveal that the Obama administration is inept and disingenuous when it comes to managing foreign affairs?

We now know, for example, that the Obama administration put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop arms shipments to Hezbollah. Assad promised action, but delivered none, and Hezbollah continues to grow in power as a result. We also know that Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, who is very worried about what would happen in the region if Iran gets the bomb, urged the president to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. On the other hand, the documents confirm what has long been an open-secret: that wealthy Saudis remain the chief financiers of Sunni jihadists, including al-Qaeda.

What if were Russia or China, Let's see… first a traitor's show trial.. then you are found guilty of course, and then you are executed by a shot in the back head the next morning, your family us billed for the bullet, and your organs are harvested for transplants, the closed coffn carcass is returned to your next of kin, and they are also billed for the shipping the body, Yep,,, a real nice places Russia and China. Oh by the way, go lay the wolf bait and sit in it

Spirit_Of_1683

Yep, and how many Soviets were murdered by Stalin? 40 million plus – far more than by Hitler. And for good measure 70 million Chinese by Chairman Mao. And we can hardly forget the brutal murder of hundreds of students in Tiananmen Square by the thugs who run China in 1989 for the 'crime' of wanting democracy. All in all, Communists have murdered almost 200 million inside a century.

Bear From Russia

You should not smoke so much marijuana.

USMCSniper

I thought I told you to go lay the wolf bait and sit in it?

harry martin

As the emails were being made public, senators in Washingtom voted to approve a first vote on internet censorship. This bill would give the government the power to remove sites that it wanted to.

tommyboy52

I believe in and support freedom of speech, but when state secrets are involved and lives are placed in jeopardy, I think the line has been crossed. One thing here really bothers me. How in the hell did a PFC get access to all this information? Certainly there must be others involved who aided and abetted Bradley Manning's unlawful, disloyal, and traitorous act. And why in the hell is this Julian Assange fellow still on the loose? Rule of law be damned, this self-righteous jerk ought to have been "whacked" by now and Manning should be waiting on his date with the hangman. What the hell has happened to our country that this incident was allowed to happen? But why should I worry, Eric Holder and President Obama are hot on it now and we should see results soon, right?

kafir4life

Has anybody published where this fellow lives? Does he have children? Grandchildren? Mother? Aunts? Does anybody know where any of them will be and when? What school does his kids go to? What are his neighbors like? Where does he buy his socks? Where does he dine? And with whom? I'm certainly not suggesting anything illegal. These are just questions that beg to be answered.

Do you really think a 22 year old private could do this alone? This was done with the help of the Obama administration. With one fell swoop, he has compromised America's diplomatic positions and dispensed with his main political rival, as Hillary is done after this.

Robert Laity

Obama has usurped the Presidency. Of course he is sabotaging our Republic….FROM WITHIN.

Ret. Marine

The story missing here with this is the fact that Wiki Leaks, is by way of extension being propped up with the money from our favorite traitor G. Soros, who is also a friend of, you guessed it, obamas Bin Ly'n. I believe ol'e george schwartz aka, soros is getting a little impatient with his bought and paid for usurper-n-thief. Look for the end result being the shuttering of sites like this because they ( this regime) knows the truth is coming out at breakneck speed, and they can't have it because of their intentions to wage war against the American Citizenry. This is going to get real interesting folks, get yourselves prepared. It coming.

http://www.okcteaparty.org Dan

Yes. Follow the money. As a retired Army type and reviewing all of the incentives that can be used to turn someone into a traitor, I can't figure this PFC Manning out. But then there is the Gay connection and the assertion that part of why he did it was because of his antipathy to the DADT policy. I just can't see him sitting around one evening at his near Baghdad base and saying to himself, "Because of DADT, I am going to give myself a thrill by bringing the whole damned system down." There just has to be some other incentive here.

Jim C.

How about "We're involved in two wars that don't relate to our national security in any tangible way, we have a ridiculous charade going on in the Middle East where all these countries pretend to like each other and blame Israel for everything, we spend billions trying to keep the "peace talks" charade going–for no reason other than because we are dependent on the product this messed up region provides."

Our military/foreign policy has been off the rails for decades, in service of the big money guys who've steadily bought control of our gov't, who have been using our sons as fodder for plans that have nothing to do with our security. We should all hate that we've let it get to this point.

That sounds like motivation, to me.

Jim C.

George Soros "by extension." That's another way of saying "Ret. Marine is just making stuff up (or watching too much Glenn Beck)." Hey, if you ever decide to join us in reality, someday, you'll realize that wikileaks doesn't cost any money to operate. You get a few computers and people willing to "leak" and off you go. You don't need the Grand Puppetmaster's fortune. That's what's freaky about all this.

Billsocal

Think about this George Schwartz (Soros) is a large share holder in Monsanto Corp.
Monsanto either has just bought XE services (Blackwater Security) or is renting it out for intelligence operations that they would like to do. Monsanto is tied with S510 the Food Safety Modernization Act which just passed today.

Jim C.

Wikileaks doesn't just do government secrets; it does corporate secrets, too. Early next year, apparently, they're going to release one large bank's books. The effect will be that of lifting a rock and seeing all the bugs crawl out.

Naturally, everyone in gov't, including democrats, are outraged–their corruption will be on view for all to see. Watch very carefully those who are most outraged–and weep for this country, that we've allowed these pirates to bleed our largesse for so long. Out of control spending, cover-ups, absurd, never-ending wars with no goal….Yes, this will get interesting.

Andres de Alamaya

The inmates are running the institution.

Live Free or Die

Let's see–while the un-Constitutional Fed is destroying our economy, while both Demoraps and Depublicans are shredding the Constitution and our rights along with it, while national-wrecking immorality never-before-seen in the world is not only condoned, but promoted, "they" have the nerve to talk about the safety of America and Americans? Are you kidding me?!!! Maybe no one notices that all of these "diplomatic" officials and their informants have brought us such peace in the world that we will yet again need to pass some sort of US law or, worse yet, to subscribe to some international law (yes, here comes the one-world orchestrations, again) that will strip more sovereignty of America and our rights away so that we can join hands with the Muslims who love us so much, with the communists who've infilitrated us, both of whom have sworn to destroy us! Yes, let's condemn the WikiLeaks people so that those who are really destroying everyithing can continue under the cover of darkness. It's funny how all those who operate in that darkness cry so loudly when a light begins to shine on their own criminal activities!

Monkey Man

Well said, Live Free or Die! It is too bad your commentary is not tolerated in the mainstream media. Political correctness has stifled important discourse. The only logical outlet for thinkers appears to be websites like this.

Bear From Russia

There is an opinion that all this WikiLeaks project is made by CIA and the main purpose of WikiLeaks is to to bring Obama into discredit. I don't know if it is true or not, but in fact WikiLeaks doesn't provide any really serious information, only soap.

MixMChess

Doubtful considering a large portion of the documents first leaked were from the Bush era and would only serve to undermine or discredit Bush's foreign policies and "his" war on terror.

waltw

And just where is this 'opinion' expressed – or is it that you are just attempting to get a rumor going?

By the way, since all this information will lead to "murder of innocents", why has the main stream media, including Fox News and MSNBC, continued to tell all? Without the media repeating all that is on Wikileaks, very few would even know about it. Right?

Seems a bit two-faced as far as who is the devil here.

My favorite infidel

Amazing… The Dept of Homeland Security seizes over 80 filing-sharing sites for copyright infringement, but they don't show greater urgency in shutting down this site? Talk about misplaced priorities! Assange is one virus that needs to be deleted ASAP.

Billsocal

All these documents that Wikileaks just released are poorly done fakes. First any document that is classified has to have downgrading instruction stamp on each and every page. These documents didn't. I check some debriefing of a Czech scientist who work for the Nazi during WWII. He was debrief on 1957 and the Report was declassified in 1999. Each and every page had a downgrading stamp on it indicating when it would be declassified/ This is in the book Nazi International and the scientist was Dr Richard Ritcher. Also there are no markings on the documents showing that the information is
Foreign Government Information (FGI). I found this at http://www.State.gov/documents/organization189321…

Ghostwriter

I think that Assange is a self-righteous pinhead who doesn't care what happens to other people. All he care about is himself and making sure that his name is spelled right. I don't know how this guy lives with himself.

Jim C.

No. Pretty dangerous way to live for a guy who just wants to be famous. I think what he's doing has terrible consequences in terms of the day-to-day life of our troops in the field; outside of that, I couldn't care less whose ox gets gored. It's long overdue we got a peek behind such massive government/corporate multinational collusion.

Of the 100 biggest economies in the world, only 49 are countries. The rest are private corporate entities with no loyalties, no accountability, and unprecedented access to power and policy-making.

coyote3

Tells you something about what works. I am rather disappointed that there are as many government in the 100 largest economies.

coyote3

Our day to day life of troops in the field "is" what is at stake. This guy needs something that we still have around here, although not used for a long time. We have an adobe wall or two still left, and ready for use. That may also require protecting some people I would rather not protect, but one of our grunts is worth more than a dozen of those pinheads.

John

It is ironic that the author keeps condemning wikileaks for publishing the secret documents, and then gleefully quotes them in support of his views about Saudis, Syrians, Iranians etc.

Wikileaks a terrorist site? Give me a break. Their actions may be distasteful, even criminal, but no terrorism. Using the terrorism tag wildly against whatever displeases us will only reduce the evilness of real terrorism.

jaythehistorian

The "news organizations" such as the NY Slimes which enable these traitors should be severely punished. I suggest "Pinch" should hang from a street light pole on Broadway in NYC. The owner /publisher of the NY Slimes and his willing executioners have collaborated with radical Islam and other enemies of the USA at every opportunity. The Slimes which would be bankrupt if they had not borrowed money from loan shark Carlos Slim, has carried out a deliberate campaign against this country. The semi-literate nitwits who write columns for the slimes clearly hate fellow Americans who have the temerity to disagree with there ultra radical,insane support of Jihadists or their war on white Americans.

AnimalFarm

That was exactly the first point I made when this Wikileaks thing broke. Assange isn't a US citizen, which mitigates his dastardly deed. No such mitigation can be granted to the New York Slimes, which is an enemy of the United States. Treason could be easily applied to the Slimes, but Obama and Holder, along with the Slimes, are birds of a feather. Unless the NYT embarrasses Obama, or makes him look bad (which is the only crime worthy of action by The One), nothing will happen.

AnimalFarm

Big Sis, under the approving eye of our Disaster-in-Chief, went on a domain-snapping rampage without notice. Wikileaks may be used as a good excuse to go on further censorship raids under the guise of National Security. "Never let a crisis go to waste", I wouldn't be shocked if they went after Fox, Drudge, Limbaugh, Hannity, Frontpage etc. I do think Wikileaks and Assange are disgraceful, but if the Obama Regime has the power to declare them a terrorist organization, maybe the Tea Party would be next. After all, these are Obama's enemies (not for him, but against him).

Assange should be hunted down and dealt with as a spy. He is not a citizen, so he can't be considered a traitor. He is obviously anti-American and Anti-capitalism, but he should be entitled to his warped point of view, but exposing state and military secrets is espionage. We are at war.

Indioviejo

I believe nations, just as people, have a right to keep secrets. In private relationships, certain breaches of trust are harshly dealt with. Reaction to insults is sometimes deadly. Try insulting Islam for instance. Its easy for anyone to attack or smear the USA, since we seem impervious to criticism. Its like donkeys braying at the moon. This happens all over the world, because the human animal is the only envious animal there is. Dangerous predators that we are, Assange should live in fear, if at all, for ever.

Live Free or Die

Allowing OUR NATION to keep secrets is just what got us into all this mess. Their secret bribes, political payoffs, backroom deals (including the one at Jekyll Island in 1910), all lead to the corruption we're all now stuck with and that's destroying America! No, our nation is supposed to be accountable to the people, and it's been under the cover of darkness and secrecy that has brought us and the world to the brink of disaster! Might I suggest you go and research some of the wisdom of our founding fathers on what they believed bout secrets and the government. Very much appreciate your opinion and dialogue–who knows, by the time the government is finished with the WikiLeaks deal, the 1st Amendment will be amended again and we'll lose more of our rights, all in the name of secrecy so everyone's protected. Unfortunately, that will be just one more step, along with the government's internet controls that are looming, that you and I will no longer be able to discourse on our differing views. Think about it.

Indioviejo

You are building a straw man in order to dump your particular take on this issue. I referred to our military and Diplomatic secrets specifically. Bribes, political payoffs, back room deals, etc., ? I believe ANYONE involved in these illegal activities should be executed, after a fair trial of course. As for the 1st Amendment, Wikileaks is not entitled to this protection because it is not an American operation. Assange is a spy and he should be treated as such. Nevertheless, the 1st Amendment has lost its efficacy since the politically correct crowd started dictating our parameters, and Muslims intimidate by threatening us for saying ANYTHING they don't like. You think about this.